MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Seventh case of monkeypox confirmed in Brazil

All patients have a history of traveling to Europe, it was reported

Brazil's Health Ministry Friday announced the seventh case of monkeypox had been confirmed in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, while reports from the State of Minas Gerais said a local case under investigation since Wednesday came out negative.

According to the Ezequiel Dias Foundation (Funed) a suspected case of monkeypox in Ouro Preto had yielded negative results, the State's Health Secretariat (SES-MG) explained.

The Rio Grande do Sul patient is a 34-year-old man, with a history of travel to Europe, has a stable clinical condition, and is currently in home isolation, where he is monitored by municipal and state health authorities.

Of the seven confirmed cases of monkeypox nationwide, four are in São Paulo, two in Rio Grande do Sul, and one in Rio de Janeiro, while other suspected cases are under probe.

Monkeypox is a disease caused by a virus and transmitted by close or intimate contact with an infected person with skin lesions. Contact can occur through hugging, kissing, massaging, sexual intercourse, or respiratory secretions. Transmission also occurs through contact with objects, fabrics (clothes, bed linen, or towels), and surfaces that have been used by the affected person.

There is no specific treatment for the malady, although symptoms are mild. The greatest risk of worsening happens, in general, to immunosuppressed people with HIV/AIDS, leukemia, lymphoma, metastasis, transplants, people with autoimmune diseases, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and children under 8 years of age.

Minas Gerais authorities confirmed that all cases under review were not of monkeypox. None of the patients had a recent history of traveling abroad, although the Ouro Preto suspect had been in São Paulo days before showing symptoms.

After the appearance of rashes covering most of his body, with blister formation and fever, the man, who is a student, was treated at the Santa Casa da Misericórdia Hospital in Ouro Preto and later transferred to the Eduardo Menezes Reference Hospital in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday. Minas Gerais officials vowed to monitor the case until the patient's discharge.

According to São Paulo's Butantan Institute, monkeypox is a “sylvatic zoonosis” - that is, a virus that infects monkeys and can, incidentally, affect humans. Infection usually occurs in forest regions of West and Central Africa. The disease is caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the orthopoxvirus family. There are two types of the virus: that of West Africa and that of the Congo Basin (Central Africa). Although West African smallpox is sometimes severe in some individuals, the disease usually subsides with no particular treatment other than caring for the skin lesions. The mortality rate for the West African virus is 1% for the unimmunized, while for the Congo Basin virus it can be as high as 10%.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), children are also at a higher risk, and smallpox in pregnancy can lead to complications, congenital smallpox, or the death of the baby.

The WHO is currently working with experts to adopt a new name for Monkeypox, as the term “monkeypox” is considered discriminatory and stigmatizing.